CHAPTER 5 – The Secret Vault Beneath the Mansion
William ended the call without saying a word.
The silence inside the penthouse office was deafening.
Samuel looked out the window, his weathered face drained of color.
"I know that voice," he whispered.
William frowned.
"You're certain?"
Samuel nodded slowly.
"Twenty-three years ago... she wasn't called Eleanor Sterling."
William's heartbeat quickened.
"What was her name?"
Samuel looked him straight in the eyes.
"Elena Cross."
The name struck William like lightning.
Elena Cross had officially died in a car accident twenty-five years earlier.
At least...
That's what every public record claimed.
William immediately opened his encrypted company archive.
Nothing.
Every document mentioning Elena Cross had been deleted.
Every photograph had disappeared.
Every employee file connected to her had been erased.
Almost.
Samuel reached into the pocket of his old janitor's jacket and pulled out a tiny brass key tied to a faded blue ribbon.
"I've carried this every day since the fire."
William stared at it.
"What does it open?"
Samuel smiled sadly.
"I never knew."
"But the man who gave it to me said..."
"'If your son ever survives... he'll know where this belongs.'"
Suddenly, William remembered something.
When he was ten years old, his late adoptive father had once drunkenly muttered about a place beneath the original Sterling Mansion.
A room that officially didn't exist.
Without wasting another second, William and Samuel drove to the abandoned mansion outside the city.
Dust covered everything.
Broken chandeliers hung from the ceiling.
The estate had been empty for nearly twenty years.
Until Samuel noticed a small bronze emblem beneath the grand staircase.
The brass key fit perfectly.
Click.
The marble floor began to shake.
A hidden staircase slowly opened beneath them.
Cold air rushed upward.
William switched on his flashlight.
Deep underground...
A steel vault waited in complete darkness.
Neither of them realized...
Someone was already watching through hidden security cameras.
And that person immediately picked up the phone.
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"They found the vault."
"Kill them before they open it."
